The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for cleaning an optical fiber splicing apparatus. More specifically, the invention provides for cleaning the electrodes of an optical fiber splicer with a tungsten wire brush.
In order to join two optical fibers together such that optical signals may be transferred from one optical fiber to the other optical fiber, the fibers may be spliced together by utilizing a splicing apparatus. Optical fiber splicers are well-known in the art and may utilize tungsten electrodes. As can be seen in FIG. 1, an end of optical fiber 100 is positioned in proximity to an end of optical fiber 200 between the electrodes 300 and 350 of the splicing machine (not illustrated). An arc is applied across the gap between tungsten electrodes 300 and 350 to fuse the ends of fibers 100 and 200 together. Thus, fibers 100 and 200 are joined together such that optical signals may be transferred from one of the optical fibers to the other of the optical fibers.
When an arc is applied across tungsten electrodes 300 and 350 to fuse optical fibers 100 and 200 together, residue, such as silicon particles 400, is deposited onto the electrodes. A build-up of these particles on the electrodes will result in a decreased ability of the electrodes to splice two optical fibers together. Therefore, it is desirable to remove as large a portion of the residue from the electrodes as possible. Currently, a tool is available for removing some of the residue from the electrodes, however, problems exist with the currently known tool.
The currently known tool is a brush-type apparatus where the brush includes glass bristles. The operator brushes the glass bristles across the tungsten electrodes attempting to remove the residue from the electrodes. Since the glass bristles are not as hard a material as are the tungsten electrodes, the bristles are not able to effectively remove a large majority of the residue from the electrodes. Typically, the glass bristles are only able to remove approximately 50% of the residue from the surface of the electrodes. The bristles do not remove those silicon particles that are more deeply embedded in the tungsten electrodes.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an improved apparatus and method for cleaning residue from the electrodes of an optical fiber splicing machine.